Realm of the Night God

Yang Haoran returned, coming back to the mountain where he had previously killed Zhao Hong, but not to the exact spot where he killed Zhao Hong. Instead, he arrived at an unfamiliar place.

The vegetation was lush, with towering ancient trees - a common sight in the mountain. There was nothing particularly special about the place.

Under the moonlight, Yang Haoran put his hands in his pockets, lit a cigarette, carefully observed the surrounding environment, then furrowed his brow, closed his eyes as if recalling or sensing something.

After a moment, Yang Haoran slowly opened his eyes and left the place, searching for something deeper in the mountain.

About half an hour later, Yang Haoran stopped again and carefully examined the area before him.

The vegetation was just as lush, the trees just as towering, seemingly no different from the area he had previously stayed in. But Yang Haoran's face broke into a smile.

This was the place where Zhao Hong's Guardian Spirit had previously unleashed powerful Yin Qi, and Yang Haoran's purpose in returning was to find this very location.

Under Yang Haoran's mental control, a chain the thickness of an arm suddenly appeared in the void in front of him. The chain, like a black snake, swayed its body and lunged towards a large tree.

The imagined scenario did not materialize. When the chain struck the tree, there was no explosive sound, the tree did not collapse, and the chain disappeared the moment it touched the tree.

Seeing the fast-moving chain in the void, Yang Haoran's smile deepened.

"I've finally found this place. The barrier here is quite interesting - not only does it not interfere with entry and exit, but it also does not detect any power fluctuations. However, I don't appreciate this kind of barrier that cannot block outsiders."

Yang Haoran spoke calmly, then with a light wave of his hand, the chain dissipated into Yin Qi, and he stepped into the void towards the front.

When his body touched the tree in front of him, just like the chain, his body directly merged into the tree and disappeared!

As his body merged into the tree, the world before him suddenly changed.

The place was shrouded in Yin Qi, the vegetation was withered, completely different from the lush scene seen earlier - it was a deathly silence.

The previous scene visible to the naked eye was not the real one, but an illusion created by the barrier. Now that Yang Haoran had entered the barrier, he was seeing the true scene.

Yang Haoran knew about this place for two reasons: one was the strong Yin Qi that had emanated from here when Zhao Hong's Guardian Spirit appeared, and the other was the information he had obtained from Zhao Hong's soul through the ghost eye.

Previously, Yang Haoran had found many undead in the porcelain vial where Zhao Hong had collected souls. Normally, a spirit master would immediately feed these undead souls to their own Guardian Spirit to strengthen it. However, Zhao Hong had not done so, not because she was merciful, but because her Guardian Spirit was not by her side.

As a spirit master, the Guardian Spirit is one's right-hand man. The reason Zhao Hong did not bring her Guardian Spirit with her was because this place was heavily imbued with Yin Qi.

After Deng Feng had destroyed Zhao Hong's previous Guardian Spirit, the new one she obtained had limited strength. In order to quickly strengthen her Guardian Spirit, Zhao Hong chose this area with concentrated Yin Qi to accelerate its growth, while also collecting more souls.

The area Yang Haoran was now in was the place Zhao Hong had found with concentrated Yin Qi, and it was the extreme yin place that Yang Haoran had been most eager to find.

Zhao Hong was from Liangshui Township, but this area was already quite far from there, deep in the mountains where hardly anyone ventured. It was only a few months ago, when Zhao Hong was chasing a rat demon, that she discovered this extreme yin place, which greatly delighted her.

The demonic pill Yang Haoran and Bai Xue had obtained from the spoils previously had come from that rat demon.

After killing the rat demon, Zhao Hong set up a restrictive barrier here and let her Guardian Spirit train to improve its strength, while she went out to search for more souls, hoping to quickly raise her Guardian Spirit to the malevolent spirit realm.

Since this place was deep in the mountains with no one around, and her Guardian Spirit was already quite strong, plus she had the ability to tear space, Zhao Hong chose to focus on concealment when setting up the barrier, without additional measures to prevent others from entering.

According to her thoughts at the time, there would be no one who could discover this place, and even if someone or a wild beast were to come and intrude into the barrier, her Guardian Spirit would be able to handle it.

Even if the Guardian Spirit could not handle it, given her special connection with the Guardian Spirit, she would be able to sense the danger and tear through space to rush back at any time, so there was no need to waste energy setting up a restriction barrier to prevent external intrusion.

It is precisely because of this that the restriction barrier Yang Haoran sees now is as it is.

For Yang Haoran, this extreme yin place is no longer unfamiliar, and compared to the black water pool, the Yin Qi here is slightly more concentrated. However, there is no sign of the Yin Qi sinking here, indicating that there is no dark yin stone present.

Whether there is a dark yin stone or not is no longer that important to Yang Haoran now. Having a dark yin stone would be ideal, as he could collect it as a backup, but if there is no dark yin stone, it doesn't matter, because what he is currently lacking is a large amount of Yin Qi to refine the soul-refining cauldron.

Previously, through the ghost eye, Yang Haoran had obtained information about this extreme yin place from Zhao Hong's soul, and this extreme yin place was a great boon.

However, at the time, Yang Haoran did not show it, not because he distrusted Bai Xue, but because he did not want anyone other than Xu Meijing to know about the soul-refining cauldron, including those closest to him.

It is for this reason that Yang Haoran did not bring Bai Xue to search for the location of this extreme yin place, but instead sent Bai Xue back to the villa and then came back here alone.

Everyone has their own secrets, and everyone has the right to keep their secrets, so Yang Haoran does not feel that his actions are inappropriate, nor will he feel guilty towards Bai Xue, as he has no intention of harming her, he just wants to keep his unavoidable secret.

Having found this extreme yin place, Yang Haoran has no intention of leaving, as his soul-refining cauldron has already been half refined, and he is eager to complete the remaining half.

It is like a Burly Man who is enjoying a delicious meal, but suddenly there is no more food, and he has only eaten half his fill, feeling very frustrated. Now, the fragrant food is right in front of him, and the hungry Burly Man will undoubtedly eat his fill without hesitation.

At this moment, Yang Haoran is just like this hungry Burly Man!

However, he did not immediately take out the soul-refining cauldron to absorb the Yin Qi here, because in his view, this would be too reckless. The soul-refining cauldron is of great importance, and without absolute safety measures, he would never take it out.

The restriction barrier set up by Zhao Hong here has some merit, but in Yang Haoran's cautious view, this single restriction barrier is completely insufficient, even if no one sets foot in this place, he would not be so hasty.

He did not destroy Zhao Hong's restriction barrier, but instead set up another powerful restriction barrier within Zhao Hong's barrier. This new restriction barrier not only strengthened the sealing of the Yin Qi in this place, preventing the Yin Qi from leaking and dissipating, but also prevented external objects from entering the barrier.

After doing all of this, Yang Haoran carefully inspected the two restriction barriers to ensure that there were no issues, and only then did he take out the soul-refining cauldron and continue refining the unfinished soul-refining cauldron.